Difference Between Advertising and Promotion

Marketing mix implies combinations of various elements that help the company in attracting customers, to buy the products offered by the company. It includes product, price, place, and promotion. Promotion is a marketing mechanism, that involves informing the customers about the product offered by the company, and includes advertising, public relation, personal selling, direct marketing, etc.

Most of the people are having the opinion that promotion and advertising are one, and the same thing but both of the terms differ in the sense that advertising is that form of communication, which is intended to induce potential customers, to buy your product, over the competitors. It is a tool that reaches thousands of customers in one go.

In this article, our main focus is to explain all the difference between advertising and promotion. But, first of all, you must know that promotion is a marketing technique, and advertising is a promotional tool.

Content: Advertising Vs Promotion

1. Comparison Chart
2. Definition
3. Key Differences
4. Conclusion

Comparison Chart

Basis for Comparison	Advertising	Promotion
Meaning	Advertising is a technique of driving public attention towards a product or service, through paid network.	The set of activities that spread a word about the product, brand or service is known as promotion.
What is it?	Subset	Superset
Objective	Building brand image and boosting sales.	Short term sales push
Strategy	Promotional strategy	Marketing strategy
Effects	Long term	Short term
Results	Generally slow, can be seen over time.	Instant
Cost involved	Highly expensive	Cost Effective
Best suited for	Medium and big enterprises	All enterprises

Definition of Advertising

Advertising is an impersonal promotional tool which is used to draw public attention towards a product or service, through a selected and paid media. It is a means of communication that helps to communicate a single message, to a large number of people in less time. In a nutshell, advertising is nothing but “telling and selling” of commercial items.

Advertising is a technique used by most of the companies, to persuade the potential customers to buy the product. Various channels are used for the purpose of advertising like television, radio, newspaper, magazines, billboards, pamphlets, posters, cabs, buses, walls, etc.

Due to extreme competition between companies, the cost of advertising a single product is very high, these days. In general, people get attracted to the advertisement and the demand for that product increases. So, the effects of advertising are positive. The result of advertising is seen in the long run when there is an upward movement in the sales figure.

However, it is quite difficult for a common man to identify good products among an array of products because only positive aspects are disclosed in the ads. The more the ads are displayed to the customer, the more it will make an impression on the customer’s mind. In this way, it helps the companies to make money easily with their product no matter whether the quality is up to the mark or inferior.

Definition of Promotion

Promotion refers to the set of activities that communicate the merits of a product, service or brand to persuade target customers to buy it. It is one of the four elements of the marketing mix. It is a way of attracting, inducing and creating awareness among the people to initiate the purchase.

The ways of promotion include, discount coupons, free distribution of samples, rebate, offers like giving two items at the price of one, trial offers, offers on festivals and occasions, contest, value added services, etc. Due to these methods, the companies get an instant boost in their sales because customer response is impulsively when they know that they will get more at the price of less. It involves activities like:

• Direct Marketing: It is a technique in which companies sell their products directly to the customers, by eliminating the middleman.
• Advertising: Advertising (as explained above) is a paid announcement, wherein the message is conveyed to attract the customer and bring is attention towards the product, through a medium.
• Public Relation: Every company wants to build and maintain an image in front of the public, through various channels.
• Personal Selling: In this technique, the salesman sells the company’s product by directly visiting and influencing them to buy the product.

Conclusion

After the deep discussion, we can say that both the terms advertising and promotion are different. However, there are certain similarities like both are a part of marketing strategy. The tools are mainly used for influencing the demand for the product or service and to get the desired response in the target market.